Fabricated claims about Apple's manufacturing prompt retraction from 'This American Life' [u]
The radio program "This American Life" has retracted an Apple-centric episode it aired earlier this year about the working conditions at Foxconn, after it was revealed a critic lied about what he saw when visiting the Chinese facilities.
The program aired an episode earlier this year entitled "Mike Daisey and the Apple Factory," which was based on a monologue by performer Mike Daisey. The show admitted on Friday that details from the episode were fabricated, and it has accordingly retracted the episode.
Both "This American Life" and American Public Media's "Marketplace" will detail "numerous fabrications" that were stated in the original program. In a statement, it was said that "This American life" cannot vouch for Daisey's claims made in his monologue.
When the original 39-minute excerpt was broadcast on This American Life on January 6, 2012, Marketplace China Correspondent Rob Schmitz wondered about its truth," the press release reads. "Marketplace had done a lot of reporting on Foxconn and Apple's supply chain in China in the past, and Schmitz had first-hand knowledge of the issues.
"He located and interviewed Daisey's Chinese interpreter Li Guifen (who goes by the name Cathy Lee professionally with westerners). She disputed much of what Daisey has been telling theater audiences since 2010 and much of what he said on the radio.
"During fact checking before the broadcast of Daisey's story, This American Life staffers asked Daisey for this interpreter's contact information. Daisey told them her real name was Anna, not Cathy as he says in his monologue, and he said that the cell phone number he had for her didn't work any more. He said he had no way to reach her."
The retraction for the program is particularly significant because "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory" was the single most popular podcast in the history of the program, garnering 888,000 downloads and 206,000 streams. Following the airing of the program, Appel's partnership with Foxconn came under fire in reports from The New York Times and CNN.
The host of "This American Life," Ira Glass, explained the "difficult news" in a post to the site's official blog. He explained that it was not a story that the show commissioned, but rather was an excerpt of Daisey's acclaimed one-man show.
"Daisey lied to me and 'This American Life' producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast," Glass wrote. "That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, it was our mistake."
One of the falsified remarks by Daisey include his claims that he met with a group of workers who were poisoned on an iPhone assembly line. That event did not happen in Shenzhen, China, where Daisey visited, but instead happened nearly a thousand miles away.
Daisey's interpreter also disputed two of "the most dramatic moments" in Daisey's monologue: his claims that he met with underage workers, as well as a man with a hand that was mangled while making iPads.
"With this week's broadcast, we're letting the audience know that too many of the details about the people he says he met are in dispute for us to stand by the story," Glass said. "I suspect that many things that Mike Daisey claims to have experienced personally did not actually happen, but listeners can judge for themselves."
For his part, Daisey has released his own statement on the matter, in which he said he stands by his work as a "theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge."
"What I do is not journalism," Daisey said. "The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed 'This American Life' to air an excerpt from my monologue. 'This American Life' is essentially a journalistic — not a theatrical — enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations."
Update: A full transcript of the 'Apple exposé Retraction' episode is below. The audio can also be found through the This American Life website.
TAL 460 Retraction Transcript
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
What I do is not journalism
Ah, see, what he meant to say was,
I'm not accountable for anything that I say because I don't consider myself a news outlet.
In other "news", sources tell me that Mike Daisey is about to marry a goat. Unfortunately my source changed his/her number and I can't verify with her to validate this claim. However, I will still post it since I'm not a journalist.
Worse, he lies and apparently continues to lie to his audiences knowing that his misrepresentations will form the basis for opinions of people who are otherwise uninformed or falsely informed by other sources.
This makes him the worst kind of liar.
what this guy has done is and will hurt future campaigns for workers' rights. Because from now on, many people may not believe some stories that may even be true! This is not just about Apple and it affects the whole industry and also the business model that China is built upon.
I do not believe that iPads are made in sweatshops but I am happy that some workers got a pay rise that they do deserve!
-- I just read this guy's response and I have to say that he is trying to hide behind freedom of speech and that his job is "not journalism". It reminds me of the credit agencies (e.g. S&P) who claim that they only make a comment on the market and it is up to others to take their opinion into account or not! Hence they are protected by Free Speech and cannot be regulated properly
The phone number of the Public Theater in New York is (212) 539-8500
Props to Ira Glass and the rest of his team on This American Life for delivering a full-episode-length retraction. That's professionalism.
It's too bad we can't say the same for the tech blogs that created this mess in the first place.
As much as I never liked Mike Daisey and was offended by his performance, he is quite correct that it was a performance and was described as such right from the start. The problem only arose when a lot of stupid unprofessional tech blogs (I'm not sure if there actually *are* any professional ones), spread the story around as if it were fact.
I remember being shouted down on this and several other forums when I pointed out that there was no evidence for his claims and that we only had his word for most of what he said and also that what he claimed was at odds with the known facts.
If his work was correctly presented by the tech media as the mixture of fact and fiction it was, there wouldn't be any problems in the first place. This is a failure of the professionalism of the tech media, not Mike Daisey.
Everyone who attended Daisey's "Theatrical Performance" should call and demand a full refund.
This!
As much as I never liked Mike Daisey and was offended by his performance, he is quite correct that it was a performance and was described as such right from the start. The problem only arose when a lot of stupid unprofessional tech blogs (I'm not sure if there actually *are* any professional ones), spread the story around as if it were fact.
Although you raise valid points here about Mike Daisey's work and the blogsphere, but, Mike Daisey did portray his work as "news" and did not do anything to make sure others will take it as fiction rather than "news". Now that some facts have come to light, he is claiming his work is theatre and not news! I think that is a bit dishonest and he could have done way better!
If I remember correctly, the stage show was originally said to have come out of Daisey's "investigations". If he is only a theatre performer and not a journalist, how did he get access in the first place? Saying he's not a journalist in this instance is like insulting someone, then saying "no offence".
Trust me, Daisey will never be allowed in China again.
They call they themselves a premier news outlet and they used an 'actor' as a 'source'. That should have set up GREAT BIG red flags at once and the story should never have aired but Apple was too big a target for ratings.
Would they have interviewed thriller writers and use what they say as 'FACTS' for espionage, crime or stories on international relations? American Life's next big story on U.S response to the current SYRIA CRISIS will be based on "JAMES BOND".
Although you raise valid points here about Mike Daisey's work and the blogsphere, but, Mike Daisey did portray his work as "news" and did not do anything to make sure others will take it as fiction rather than "news". Now that some facts have come to light, he is claiming his work is theatre and not news! I think that is a bit dishonest and he could have done way better!
Perhaps Apple should file a defamation lawsuit against this fool... and This American Life could get in on that as well.
For his part, Daisey has released his own statement on the matter, in which he said he stands by his work as a "theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge."
"What I do is not journalism," Daisey said. "The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed 'This American Life' to air an excerpt from my monologue. 'This American Life' is essentially a journalistic ? not a theatrical ? enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations."
He misspelled "I'm a big, fat liar".
I really hope Apple and Foxconn go after him for slander.
Apple should sue him for slander/libel.
In other "news", sources tell me that Mike Daisey is about to marry a goat. Unfortunately my source changed his/her number and I can't verify with her to validate this claim. However, I will still post it since I'm not a journalist.
You don't have the whole story. It was an underaged goat and he didn't marry it, he simply committed adultery with it because his llama wife threatened to bite his ears off if he asked for a divorce. And my source went into a convent and is secluded, so you can't verify this claim.